Machine to machine (M2M) communication allows wireless and/or wired systems to communicate with other devices without manual human interaction. M2M communications may include a wide range of applications for interaction between devices, such as monitoring and control for industrial automation, logistics, Smart Grid, Smart Cities, health, telematics, defense, etc. The data transferred during M2M communications may include different types and sizes that may be associated with different applications. For example, M2M communications may include short message service (SMS) messages, multimedia, telematics data, location date, sensor data, etc.
M2M communications may be transmitted over data transmission networks, such as a third generation partnership project (3GPP) network. 3GPP promulgates standards to implement wireless networking technologies including Long Term Evolution (LTE) networking technology (sometimes referred to as a “fourth generation” (4G) wireless networking technology). LTE standards define various aspects of an LTE network, including the communications technologies and protocols used to wirelessly communicate between “user equipment” (UEs) and “enhanced NodeBs” (eNodeBs) using a “radio access network” (RAN). UEs that engage in M2M communications may be described as Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices.
It is anticipated that a large volume of MTC devices will become deployed over time, which may cause network congestion issues. Various solutions have been proposed. For example, networks may be implemented to permit MTC devices to communicate over the network without establishing a user (data) radio bearer, which may be useful to reduce the amount of control signaling associated with MTC devices (e.g., the control signaling associated with managing data bearers for the MTC device). In such instances, the MTC devices may use control signaling paths/protocols, such as the Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB), Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol and/or Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocol, to send/receive communications through the network. However, the Signaling Radio Bearer has higher priority than any Data Radio Bearer (DBR) traffic, and therefore use of the control signaling path by MTC devices may significantly impact communications by other UEs sharing the network through increased congestion. Although delaying MTC devices by rejecting RRC connection requests during times of congestion may in some cases alleviate immediate traffic congestion issues, the subsequent connection attempts (e.g., retries) may create more RRC control signaling and thus not yield significant network usage savings.